Improvement in hemp-brakes



F. P. HOLCOMB. I Hemp and Flax Brake.

Nd. 5,010. I Patented March I3, 1847.-

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANKLIN I. I-IOLCOMB, OF NE'XV CASTLE, DELA\VARE.

IMPROVEMENT IN HEM P-B'RAKEs.

I S ecificationformin'g'part"ormctt'orsIatcnt N 015,0 It), dated March 13, 1 847.

To an whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, F. P. HOLCOMB, of the town and county of New Castle, and State of Delaware, have inventeda new and useful Machine for Breaking and Cleaning Hemp at one and the-same Operation;. and I do hereby .declare that the following is a-full, clear, and' exact description of the principle or character which distinguishesit from all other things the figures.

In machinery heretofore employed for breaking and cleaning hemp, &'c., at'one operation by revolving brakes, the hemp has been acted on during a large portion of the circle of revolution, the hemp being broken by passing it between a pair of rollers orrevolving brakes and scutchers that mesh into each other and break the hemp by bending it short between them. This method is highly obj ectionable,in consequence of the great length of the fiber over which it is scraping, which is found to wear the hemp in practice, so as to render it unmerchantable. It has also been attempted to break and clean the hemp between arevolving break and a stationary concave; but this method is liable to the same objection. In fact, the hemp never can be broken and cleaned by the same roller that breaks it without subjecting it to injurious wear. Consequently the machines have been abandoned as useless, for if the hemp is broken by a stationary brake against which .the revolving brake acts, and thence passes to another wheel placed in contact withsaid revolving brake to be s'cutched, the brake scrapes over the hemp the whole distance from the bed-brake to thepoint where the scutcher acts andwears the surface into tow.

My invention is forthe purpose of obviating these difficultics, and is of the following nature:

I employ a large revolving brake, with the swords set at a tangent, (this is necessary to the well-working of the machine, as a small one would present the swords at too great an angle,) which acts against a stationary bedi plate, and there breaks the hemp as it is presented by the hand. The ends of the hemp,

as soon as they pass down below the edge where they are broken, are thrown off by the centrifugal action of the revolving blades, and they do not come in contact with it any more;

but as the hemp 'is fed in the ends aforesaid pass down and are caught between the scutchers at the angle of their junction without lying against either so as to be rubbed, and are thus cleaned. The scutchers are very small. cylinders with blades projecting from them radially that only mesh slightly ,(if at all) past their pitch-lines. These only act on that part of the hemp immediately between them, or at the junction of their curves, to clean it, and it passes through them without injury, which is not the case Where the breaking and cleaning is done by the same wheel'or roller onthe differentparts of its circumference.

The construction of my apparatus is as follows: On the cap-pieces of a suitable frame, m, I suspend a shaft, a, in suitable bearings. on which I affix two cylinder-heads, b,to which I attach any suitable number of slats or beat:

'ers,"c. These are placed diagonally, and are made to act o'na straight horizontal stationary bed-piece, d, which is armed with iron and attached to the frame m. Back of this bed-piece and a little below its surface there is.a feedboard, 0, over which the hemp is fed into the machine. Just below the bed-piece two small scutcher-cylinders, f, are so placed as to receive the hemp between them without wrapping on either,tlie blades 9 of which may work intoeach other more or less, according to the material to be acted on.

The hemp is held in the hand of the workman to be cleaned, and is presented over the bed-piece d, (as clearly shown in Fig. 2,) Where it is gradually broken as it is pushed in, and the-ends are thrown down in between the scutchers, where the shives or hurds are thrown out. The hemp in this wayis fed in, cle'aned'half its length, and then turned and the other half finished, and the hemp comes from the machine in a perfect and merchantable state.

Having thus fully described my machine, what I claim as' my invention, and desire'to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination of the stationary bed-brake and the rotary brake, and small scntchers ar-- ranged in the manner described, so that the hemp can 'be fed in by hand, broken, and cleaned with but one handling and at one operation, the breaking and cleaning being done on separate cylinders,-but the parts so arranged as that they are brought close together, and so adjusted as to only allow the machine to touch that part of the fiber that is to be acted on, thereby preventing its wear in the machine.

F. P. HOLCOMB.

Witnesses:

A. P. BROWNE, J, J. GREENOUGH. 

